Thursday, January 14, 2010

Pongalo Pongal - A Thai Thirunal Celebration!

Decoration: Used miniature pots designed by me to represent traditional Pongal festival

Thai Pongal is one of the most popular harvest festival of South India, mainly Tamil Nadu. Pongal falls in the mid-January every year. Pongal festival lasts for four days. Celebrations include drawing of Kolam, Cleaning and painting the house, cooking of delicious Pongal and so on.

The first day is celebrated as 'Bhogi pongal'. On Bhogi all people clean out their homes from top to bottom, and collect all unwanted goods and burn them. Kids dance around the bonfire.

The second day of Pongal is known as 'Surya Pongal' and is dedicated to the Sun God. It is the day on which the celebration actually begins and is also the first day of the Tamil month Thai. On this day the new rice is collected and cooked in mud pots until they over flow. It is this overflowing which means Pongal. This overflowing of rice is a joyous occasion, and the children and adults as well will shout out 'Pongal-o-Pongal!'.

The third day of Pongal is dedicated to cattle and is called Mattu Pongal. People offer prayers to the bulls, cows and other farm animals.

The fourth day of the three-day Pongal celebrations is called Kaanum Pongal. In few places this day is also known as Karinaal or Thiruvalluvar Day. On this day, people travel to see other family members and the younger members of the family pay homage to the elders, and the elders thank them by giving token money. Another thing many do is leave food out on banana leaves for birds to take.

NIthya, Wishing you and your family happy Pongal. LOved ur awesome Clicks and thanks for sharing pics of ur family..Loved both the Chakkara and paal pongal. LOved ur write-up as well and ur Kolam(Rangoli)..I can go on and on..as always a pleasure to visit ur blog.

Hey Nithya, Happy Pongal!!! The photos are awesome. You made me miss home even more :(...I'm especially missing eating sugarcane :D, it used to be a tradition at our place, after the puja in the morning and a hearty lunch, all of us used to settle in the garden with half a sugarcane each, hehe..and relax! Ah, good times :)

wonderful information, I had come to know about your blog from my friend nandu , hyderabad,i have read atleast 7 posts of yours by now, and let me tell you, your website gives the best and the most interesting information. This is just the kind of information that i had been looking for, i'm already your rss reader now and i would regularly watch out for the new posts, once again hats off to you! Thanks a ton once again, Regards, chakkara pongal recipe